Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/380

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 19* B. VIL MAY n, 1901.

employment as a common name for the animal, and its application to man in* the well-known signification, would therefore appear to date from Chaucer's time, and in all probability are based upon the lines quoted. There may be doubts about the former, but there can be none, I think, as regards the latter sense. I have carefully read PROF. SKEAT'S two learned notes in this series, and I am not going to vex him by saying that every " bayard " must be of a bay colour, but I certainly contend that the famous steed thence derived his appellation, and I hope he will agree with me. And when Sir Thomas More (whom he quotes), T. Nash, Joseph Hall, Robert Burton, and others use the expression "blind Bayards," as the equivalent of ignorant, rash, and presump- tuous men

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread I do not think he will deny that they derived their inspiration from " our English Homer," as Camden calls the poet. Burton's use of the phrase first attracted my attention to it some years ago. Though it occurs only once in his book, I have no doubt he drew it directly from Chaucer, whom he so frequently quotes. "What are all our Anabaptists, Brownists, Barrowists, Familists," he cries, " but a company of rude, illiterate, capritious base fellowes 1 What are most of our Papists, but stupid, ignorant, and blinde bayards?" ('Anatomy of Melancholy,' p. 678, sixteenth edition, London, 1836.) As a last word, I will quote from Bishop Hall's masterpiece of invective entitled 'The Honour of the Maried Clergie,' published in 1620. The learned contributor to these pages says in the first volume of this series (p. 56) that '"a blind Bayard' could even mean a mere man." But the noun without the adjective serves ^the militant bishop's purpose equally well : " This Bayard dares say," p. 716 ; again (p. 705) we read : " A truer Bayard did never stumble forth into the Presse"; and, lastly (p. 733) : " What shall we say then to this bold Bayard?" ('The Works of Joseph Hall, B. of Norwich,' London, 1647.) I think one or two of these quotations deserved a place among those given in Dr. Murray's ' Dic- tionary ' in the article upon the word under discussion. However, these notes were not penned for any such purpose.

JOHN T. CURRY.

' BIJOU ALMANACK' (9 th S. vii. 207).-! cannot answer the query, but I have a book nearly 1 m. long by 1 in. wide, bound in blue silk, on which is stamped in gold 'Bijou

Almanack, 1848.' The frontispiece is an angel walking among flowers, and carrying a garland. Unfortunately a child coloured the margin, so that I cannot make out the small printing at the top and bottom of the page. There follow two pages giving the birthdays of the royal family (18) and two total eclipses of the moon. After some pages for memoranda, the pages are divided into two columns, a page for each month. The Sundays, saints' days, quarters of the moon, Cambridge and Oxford Terms, and a few other special events are given.

Opposite each month there are illustrations of a bird and a flower, with an account of, or ^some poetry about, them for instance, opposite January there are the

THRUSH. WALLFLOWER.

The Thrush is known Lovely flower !

by the fulness and clear- Thyblossomssmile where ness of its note, and pomp has passed away, charms us by the sweet- Breathing their balmy ness and variety of its fragrance o'er decay, song, which begins early Cheering misfortune's in the spring. hour.

M. ELLEN POOLE.

Alsager, Cheshire.

JOHN JONES THE REGICIDE (9 th S. vii. 249). He was son of Thomas ap John, or Jones, by Ellen, daughter of Robert Wynn ap Jevan, of Taltrenddyn, and was born at Maes-y- Garnedd, co. Merioneth. By his parents he was sent to London to learn a trade, and acted as servant to Lord Mayor Sir Thomas Middleton. When the Civil War broke out he joined the Parliamentary army, being first captain, but from 1646 colonel of foot. He was returned M.P. for Merionethshire at a by-election in September, 1647, and retained the seat until the forced dissolution of April, 1653. Having been for some time actively employed in Ireland, he was rewarded in April, 1648, by a Parliamentary ^rant of 1,OOOZ. for his " great services " in the sister isle. The same year he was nominated one of the Parliamentary Committee for North Wales and Governor of Chester. For his share in the reconquest of Anglesea he re- ceived the thanks of the House, and on 21 October, 1648, was voted 2,000/. on acoount of his arrears of pay. He was one of the king's judges, being present upon every occasion when the Court sat, and signed the warrant for execution. He was nominated a member of the Goldsmiths' Hall Committee of Com- pounding in December, 1648 ; was one of the Committee to take the Engagement in Octo- ber, 1649 ; a Commissioner in the Act for the Propagation of the Gospel, February, 1650; one of the Committee against Obscene Prac-